Join Barbara Carmack and Jimmy Lakey in an insightful discussion on faith, perseverance, and the beauty of trusting in God’s divine plans. This episode dives into the story of a miraculous rescue, drawing an analogy with Christ’s resurrection and the profound impact faith can have in challenging situations. Discover how spiritual beliefs can guide us through life’s storms and illuminate our path. Barbara and Kimberly reflect on significant biblical moments, emphasizing the importance of setting our minds on higher realms beyond worldly expectations. Throughout this thoughtful dialogue, listeners are encouraged to recognize the divine presence in everyday life and
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom. What a joy it is for Kimberly and me to meet with you every day. We are just so happy and blessed that we have this opportunity to get to know you and your cards and your letters and your emails and your texts. reveal that you absolutely enjoy being with us and also that you love God. So we’re going to rejoice today. Our hearts are full of gladness and joy for we trust in his holy name. We trust in God. And we’re going to talk about that today, how we can trust in God, knowing that he is going to take us through the storm, through whatever we’re going through. He’s going to take us through everything. It’s such a great time to be alive, folks. And we can talk about God freely and openly. A few years back, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t. Or you would be charged with some kind of stupid charge and taken to court. And ACLJ is still… fighting some of those courts for the people that can’t talk about God in school, can’t read their Bible, can’t do the things that we have such freedom to do. So I’m so grateful. Thank you. Thank you, Father God. We have this freedom in you. Oh, friend, you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you have some time, go to freedomstreet.org and click on the resources and the radio shows and listen to them. Also, I’m interjecting.
SPEAKER 03 :
Also, look for us on Spotify. Yes. We are on Spotify. And if you look for Freedom Street or Freedom ST Radio, either one will get you to the… It’s actually the… radio programs that we have done and recorded, they’re on Spotify for you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, Kimberly does that. So our webmaster has told us that we’re not only on Facebook, we’re on Spotify. Instagram also. Instagram, yes. So you can go to any of those, click on or… Type in FreedomST, FreedomST Radio, and it’ll get you to that. So I’m so grateful for that. Praise the Lord. We’re going to see more and more people joining. And it’s not Freedom Street because that’s the DBA for FreedomStreet.org. So we just want you to know that. And some of you, when you do send in your donations, and donations come online at FreedomStreet.org, that you usually type in called a freedom but it is freedom street so thank you for doing that i am so excited to talk about the rescue this weekend and secretary hegseth said it so clearly and succinctly kimberly he said on friday they went down in their jet that their jet went down On Saturday, he climbed the mountains, the rugged mountains. And let’s see, that was Good Friday that the jet went down. And on Saturday, he found a cave to hide in till they could locate him. Isn’t that miraculous? And Sunday, Easter Sunday for all of you or most of you, he was rescued. It’s such a great analogy between Jesus dying and And being in the grave for three days and three nights and then being alive again. Oh, it’s just so beautiful. And that our Secretary of War, our President, and all those in the leadership can talk about God. Oh, what a wonderful thing. Well, we woke up Sunday morning with the words, we got him. And a crew member who went missing when the F-15E fighter jet was shot down over a remote area of Iran died. was rescued by U.S. forces, and that’s CSAR, Covert Rescue Team. Early Sunday morning, he was deep inside the mountains of Iran. President Trump informed us on social media that the wounded colonel was rescued in broad daylight after the U.S. forces attacked. spent seven hours over Iran. And President Trump said, my fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the U.S. military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history for a highly respected crew member. And I’m thrilled to let you know he is now safe and sound. He sustained injuries, but he will be fine. And the words this precious man said, and they label him as Dude 44 Bravo. is good. And I’m sure he did a lot of praying in all those hours. This area where the colonel was rescued is rugged and it’s high in altitude and heavily defended by the tribes around that area. The airman was hiding in a mountain crevice, which Hegseth said was a cave, after ejecting from F-15 East Strike Eagle. The terrain included ridge lines rising to above 7,000 feet, and that’s where he had to climb to so that they could monitor. It provided cover but also made navigation and extraction extremely difficult. The region is part of the Zagros Mountains, a mountain range in southwestern Iran known for its steep slopes, dense vegetation, and challenging weather, which are typical of the kind of terrain that makes combat search and rescue missions in hostile territory difficult. exceptionally dangerous excuse me for reading this so quickly because we got some good stuff to talk about today Iranian forces including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and local Baktari tribesmen were actively searching the area and they showed some of them with Iranian flags with all these rifles and ammunition and the U.S. operation had to contend with missile and radar threats small arms fire and and the need to move through difficult, narrow mountain passes. And they did it. They did it. Praise God. It’s such a great, wonderful time to rejoice. It’s like a wind. You know, the NCAA didn’t seem half as exciting for me this weekend with all that’s going on, Kimberly. Just amazing. Absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Two very different storylines. But victory.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Yes. Some victory, some defeat. And I guess we all go through that, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. We suffer through losses and we have great victories and great gains and we get to choose what we’re going to stay focused on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Absolutely. Choose. You know, he set before us life and death. And he says, I want you to choose life. And when we choose that life, like the airman did, God is good. Then God is going to come to your rescue. He always does. And that’s part of our memory verse this week, Kimberly. It’s Joshua 1, verse 8. Oh, the book of Joshua is so exciting. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will achieve success. And that success is not a physical success as much as it is a spiritual depth and quality of life.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. The more I meditate on the word of God, the more I realize this life is not our real life. And so we’re not looking for great success in this life. This is really not the real realm. The real realm is waiting for us. I love listening to people who have, um, maybe had a, an experience of death and come back to life here in this realm. And they talk about the colors there being more real than our colors here or the sounds, the sound of a voice, the sounds in, in that realm being more real than the sounds we hear here, here in this realm. So I get excited about that. That’s something that I meditate on and realize, you know, to me, after all these years of meditating on the word and focusing on the Lord, that makes more sense to me than all of my senses here in this realm.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, and I find, Kimberly, that I will not allow those thoughts of defeat or making me feel insignificant or shameful or fearful. I don’t allow those to last long at all. We want the other realm stuff. That’s right. We want to take care of them very quickly.
SPEAKER 03 :
Just shoot them out of the air. Yeah, that’s right. They keep us tied here. They keep us in the dark and we want to be able to see the light.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen. Well, in the Living Translation, Joshua 1 verse 8 says, I love that. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Oh, praise God. Well, today we’re going to talk a little bit about how these people that saw Jesus right after he rose from the dead, how they did not recognize him. And one of those people, Kimberly, you were mentioning was Mary.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And then you mentioned at the top of the hour that the men on the road to Emmaus were another set of people. And the way that we’re tying this in is that we don’t recognize in this realm, we don’t recognize who he is to us, that he is with us at all times, that he wants us to succeed, like your memory verse is talking about. And he wants us to continue to search for him. When we search for him with all our hearts, we will find him. We will find him and we will find that success. We will find that fulfillment.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yes. So we’re going to go back to this seven mile stretch between Jerusalem and Emmaus. And some say 17. The passion says seven. So I’m just going to go with seven miles. It takes seven miles because it does take a while to walk seven miles. I don’t think I’ve walked seven miles for years. And they were talking to each other, all the things that had taken place. And while they were talking and discussing it, Jesus himself. Now, why, if you rose again from the dead, why would you be on a lonely stretch of road with only two people? You’d want to go into the middle of Jerusalem and say, I’m here. I’m here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Don’t you think he might be able, like the whole omnipotence, right? The omnipresence as well. He might be able to be everywhere.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s true. But physically right now, he was with these two men. He came up and began walking with them. And now what if you’re walking down the sidewalk with a friend and you’re talking and this other person comes alongside and starts walking with you? Wouldn’t you look at him and say, oh, well, what are you here for? What are you doing?
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s probably what people do with me all the time. I’m walking along and I just start talking to him. Hey, how are you today?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and he began walking with them. And they were so intent, Kimberly, on the death issue. The last thing they saw was Jesus dead on the cross, them bringing him down, all bloodied. That’s all they saw. And then here is this man who is walking with them, strong, virile, just walking along with them. So their eyes were prevented from recognizing him because they didn’t have an understanding. They did not know yet.
SPEAKER 03 :
They had other expectations. They were expecting that he was in a tomb. Yes, that’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Jesus asked them, what are you discussing with one another as you walk along? And they stopped, looking brokenhearted. And one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only stranger visiting Jerusalem who is unaware of the things which have happened here in these recent days? And Jesus asked, you know, I think Jesus is just a bit coy here. He says, what things happened? What things? What things are you talking about? And they replied, the things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, powerful indeed, and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and crucified him. They were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. We were hoping and set our nation free. See, sometimes we have a whole different idea of how our lives should be arranged. Well, I’m going to get married. I’m going to have children. We’re going to be successful. We’re going to pay for our home. We’re going to da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And all of a sudden, Kimberly, things are interrupted by what happens in life.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then we’re saying the same things they’re saying. We hoped that we would have this kind of a family. We hoped that our health would stay strong. We hoped that our finances would last. We hoped that this job, this career would really work out for us. And so we have this past tense expectation. And it is. It’s our expectations of what we thought life would look like. Yeah. And that is what can keep us so discouraged. But if we want to be encouraged, we’ve got to start setting our eyes on a totally different hope. That’s right. That’s right. And it’s still viable. It’s not in the grave. No. It’s not dead. It’s not done. It’s not over. Whatever happened in your life to your job, your career, your finances, to your health, to your relationships, whatever happened, it’s not dead and staying in a tomb. You have the best ahead of you. You have got something great to look forward to. Hope in something higher.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. set your mind on things above and not on things on this earth well the two go on to explaining to this stranger who’s walking with them and we were shocked when some women went to the tomb early in the morning and they could not find his body then they came back and said they’d seen angels who said he was alive and some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said but they didn’t see him Then Jesus, oh, this is so beautiful, Kimberly, said to them, oh, foolish men and slow of heart to trust and believe in everything that the prophets had spoken. See, he’s saying to them, literally, you don’t know the word because I’ve had to fulfill all of the Old Testament. And was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and only then to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and throughout all the writings of the prophets, he explained and interpreted to them. I can’t imagine what these two were thinking. Wow, this man really knows the Old Testament. And while they’re walking along to go to Emmaus, he opened the scriptures of all the prophecies about himself. And Kimberly, I was just thinking of two or three. I was thinking of when Jesus appeared to Moses in the burning bush. I was also thinking of Balaam when he was hitting his donkey and the angel of the Lord, that’s Jesus, came to him and said, why are you doing this? And then Joshua, when Jesus said, take off your sandals, you’re standing on holy ground. And then in Judges, when Manoah asked Jesus after his wife had seen him, had seen Jesus, he said, what name can we call you? He says, don’t you know that I’m called Wonderful?
SPEAKER 03 :
I love your memory, Mom. You have such a great memory. I wish people could see you that you’re not even looking at notes. You’re just coming up with all of that in your mind, in your memory.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, those are all the years. God is so good. I can say with that airman, God is good. He is so good. And so he explained all this to them and they must have thought, oh, this man is awesome. Who is he? And they approached the village where they were going and he acted as if he was going to go further. But they urged him to stay, stay with us because it is almost evening and they probably wanted to listen to him again. Haven’t you been with a man of God or a woman of God that was so full of Holy Spirit that you just want to stay around them, stay with them? I remember one of your teachers at Rhema. You talked of her so much, and I’m sure you would have wanted to stay after class over and over. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, Patsy Bierman.
SPEAKER 02 :
Patsy Bierman, yes. And some of these teachers, or even Kenneth E. Hagan, wanted to stay after class and just listen. And Keith Moore.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, good teachers.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know. And so they urged him to stay with them. And so he went inside inside to stay with them. I love this. And it happened that as he reclined at the table with him, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it. He began giving it to them and their eyes were suddenly opened by God and they clearly recognized him. He vanished from their sight and they said to one another, we’re not our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and opening the scriptures to us. So you were saying, oh, I love what you were saying about being the bread of life. He broke that bread while they were reclining at the table and they realized he is the bread of life. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Broken for them.
SPEAKER 02 :
Broken for us. Yes. And I can imagine their trip back to Jerusalem was much faster than their trip to Emmaus. They could not wait to get to Jerusalem and tell them that the Savior had been revealed to them. Oh, how dramatic. Yes. Absolutely dramatic. And we find that there are other appearances of Jesus. While they were talking about this in verse 36 of, let’s see, Luke 24, I believe it is. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself suddenly stood among them and said to them, peace to you. Now, this was the disciples. They hadn’t seen Jesus. Only Mary, I believe, had seen Jesus. And Jesus was in their midst. So he went, this is going to be so exciting, Kimberly, when we have our new bodies, we’ll be able to go through walls. I don’t know if we’ll have walls in heaven, but we’ll be able to go through walls and go in and out freely without any kind of hesitation.
SPEAKER 03 :
Do you ever just wish that there was more than one of you because you had so many things, so many people you wanted to see or things that you needed to do in a day? And so you wish that there was more. I’m wondering if we’ll have that capability where we would be in one place, more than one place at a time. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, and he said to them after he said, peace be to you and you might see. Oh, yeah, this is close to where John 20. We’re going to be into John 20. Why are you troubled and why are doubts rising in your hearts? Look at the marks in my hands and my feet and see that it is I myself. Touch me and see a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And we’re going to go right now to John 20. Oh, wait.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. We’re in Luke 24. Before we jump to John. Sure. In Luke 24, verse 41, the disciples were ecstatic, yet dumbfounded. unable to fully comprehend it. I think that’s important. We can’t fully comprehend who Jesus is and what the other realm is to us. What we see in this life is so real to us that we can’t comprehend that there’s more beyond this. That’s right. And knowing that they were still wondering, Jesus says to them, here, let me show you. Give me something to eat. And they handed him a piece of broiled fish. Yes. And honeycomb.
SPEAKER 02 :
I just wanted to get to that part. You are delighted with honeycomb. Yes, you are. I just wanted to get to that part right there.
SPEAKER 03 :
We have honey sitting around in our kitchen all over the place. It’s in my bags. It’s in my van. It’s in the kitchen. It’s in my room. Honey everywhere. Honey, yes. Honey in the rock. Thank you for letting me. Oh, yes. Because truly, sweet things come from the hard things in this life. We have to believe that or we stay focused on the hard things and we become so discouraged and we doubt. And that’s why Jesus was asking right there, why are you doubting? There’s something really sweet right here in front of you.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. Yes. Yes. And you remember that when Jonathan was fighting with his father in a battle against the enemy and he saw honey and he took his staff and he ate the honey and his eyes were brightened. He got energy, extra energy to fight further. And you’ll find that in 2 Samuel. John 20, verses 20 through 27. And I hope you can look up some of these. Luke 24 and John 20. And Jesus said this. After Jesus said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with great joy. Remember, this is the first time he sees him. He comes through the wall, and they’re astounded. And then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you as my representatives. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven because of their faith. If you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained and remain unforgiven because of their unbelief. Now, some other translations say they are retained because of their unbelief. But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. And when the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord, he said, unless I see in his hands and the marks of the nails and put my finger into the nail prints and put my hand into his side, I will never believe. Eight days later. This is our precious Lord and Savior. He comes to you in gentleness of spirit, friend. And when you are doubting, he comes in such a miraculous and wonderful way. He came through the doors that had been barred and stood among them and again said, peace to you. He’s the prince of peace. And he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but stop doubting and believe. And Thomas answered him and said, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said, Because you have seen me, do you now believe? Blessed and happy and spiritually secure and favored by God are they who did not see me and yet believed in me. And that’s us, folks. That’s us, Kimberly, who believe we have not seen him, but we believe.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And when we believe, that actually opens up our spiritual eyes to see him more and more in ways that we never would have expected. Again, it comes back to our expectations when we realize that we’re the ones in the dark. With all of our technology and all of our senses, what makes sense to us, our rationalization, our logic, what we see with our eyes, what we hear with our ears, what we can feel and touch. We are the ones in the dark. Yes. This is a world that is in the dark. But when we choose to believe. And we let that belief take over. We start seeing in new ways and the light has come. I actually really liked the beginning of John 20 verse one, very early in the morning before sunrise, Mary Magdalene made her way to the tomb that was in the dark. She was in the dark coming. And expecting to find a body, a dead body, because that’s the last thing she had seen. So that’s what made sense.
SPEAKER 02 :
And she wanted to put spices and things on the body. She did not know if he’d been prepared in that way.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. So this is another person who did not recognize him. Hmm. when she saw that the stone had been rolled away and there was nobody in the tomb. That’s right. And she, he was there, he was there, but she did not recognize him because of her own expectations. She was still in the dark. All he had to do was say her name. Yes. Mary, I wonder if there is a way or an inflection in the voice when Jesus says your name today that you would be able to really recognize him and no longer doubt but believe that you have an amazing future ahead of you. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
because his thoughts and his plans are for good for you, for welfare and not for evil. Remember that from Jeremiah 29, verse 11. Oh, it’s been wonderful being with you today. We’ve got more to talk about tomorrow. So join us. Call to freedom. Be with God and take joy, my friend.
SPEAKER 1 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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